UPDATED: My Easter Adventure Reproducing the Jill Sander 2018 'Blue Egeo Cocoon Coat' or the Velveteen Rabbit Coat

(UPDATE) So here's my tribute to Jill Sander's blue spring coat waiting for a final press and two snap closures. It's obvious that my plush fabric means the coat has more bulk than Sander's flannel version. Also, Burda's pocket design set into a waist seam makes the pocket openings more obvious, (evident also in the Burda model photo).
Probably for this reason, Burda designed a smallish pocket. I missed the welt breast pocket, but okay. And I had to recut the collar as the plush was going in the wrong direction on the first piece.

Sander used a thin white lining (through which I can see the seam surplus on the photo,) but I preferred a sturdy blue satin, (below). Mine is also a 'duskier' powder blue, which is fine, and about an inch shorter, even though I lengthened the Burda design by 4 cm and took up a very modest hem. And of course, as I'm not size zero, my coat will inevitably look less linear than Sander's model. But overall, I'm pleased. I think it will see me through the next two months of intermittent snowfalls and tulip-pushing which typifies a Swiss mountain springtime.)

*****

I haven't been sewing for a while because domestic concerns tended toward house repairs, family visits, aging friends in need, and did I say, house repairs? Plastering, painting, kitchen machinery all on the blink, etc. all while surviving a 'Christmas season' of skiing visits/musicians' retreat/ daughter and new boyfriend, ending mid-February.

Besides, I have more clothes than I need. BUT I also fell in luurrve with the Jill Sander 'Blue Egeo' coat for Spring 2018. I have no idea what Egeo means in Sanderworld, but I suspect it describes someone with such an outsized ego, they demand an extra letter.

Argh, notice this: Jill Sander's coat costs 2,290 Euros and if you want it from Modus Operandi you have to pay a deposit of 1,145. You know, like a mortgage? And they won't deliver it until April.

So my quest began for fabric. I found the perfect color on the website of the Swiss Alja.ch people, (happily no customs rip-off!) They offered a choice between a hard-boiled wool that could scrub a burnt pot shiny and some stuff that looked very nice on the web: a healthy half of wool, cotton, viscose, and then some abbreviations that told me, 'From this point on, you don't want to know.'

I needed many days after the coat fabric arrived in the post wondering what this stuff was. It wasn't flannel, too thick. It wasn't knit or poly fleece. It was too soft to hold the tailored line and not the tight woven quality of a good wool velour. It was only after a week of pondering the weird label that I realized I'd bought stuffed animal plush. Gorgeous, but weirdly fragile at the weave and with a take-no-prisoners nap.

Well, now I was up against it: committed to underlining the whole thing for body along with interfacing the collar and front pieces. Maybe too much warmth for an Easter coat? What I had on the cutting table was not the Jill Sander Ego Coat but the Velveteen Rabbit in the Alps Spring Coat.

Total cost so far for fabric, lining, and preshrunk IKEA cotton on hand for underlining= 130 Swiss francs or so.

I searched a lot on Burda Style, (as I've archived all the mags and technical drawings back to 2009) and finally settled on this baby, No.120 from December 2010. Yup, it took that far back to find a coat with a narrow lapel, cross-wise pockets at the waist, and the boxy shape with no cut-away at the front hem or weird waist panel insert.
I added 2 cm to the hem on a 42-45 cut but I fear that's not enough to replicate Sander's length.
The shoulders will have to come in and possibly need some modest padding, but the back kickpleat is the easiest to manage I've ever sewn, dropping straight from the waist seam and requiring no diagonal cross-seam half down the leg.

Underlining is a drag but in this case, it has been paying off as the coat takes shape. The plush presses surprisingly well, well enough for me to spot this booboo (just below) at the rear waist which will need a tweak to align perfectly.


Half the collar done at midnight last night. More later....